The below resources are intended for Chicago Booth students and alumni who are interested in learning more about entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA). In order to view the videos, you will need to log in with your CNET credentials. The Polsky Center’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, ETA faculty, and ETA alumni have delivered the content through workshops and information sessions.
If you missed the opportunity to join Polsky Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Alex Hodgkin, MBA ’14 for a general information session on Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA), then this recording is for you. In this event recording, you will learn about the ETA programming at Chicago Booth and careers in ETA.
Produced by the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, this practical guide answers the most frequently asked questions on ETA.
This blog, written and produced by Jim Sharpe, a visiting executive at the Harvard Business School, includes comprehensive insight on raising a search, searching, and operating as a CEO. Resources include case studies, blogs relevant to search, books and guides on ETA, research, and search tips from searchers, operators, and search fund investors.
ETA Workshop: Legal Aspects of ETA
Raam Jani (Partner, BakerHostetler) hosted an interactive presentation on the legal side of ETA investments and deals. A partner in BakerHostetler’s business group, Raam Jani has a varied corporate practice that includes middle-market private equity, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and search fund/entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) transactional matters, along with an entrepreneur-focused general corporate practice that provides outside general counsel services to closely-held private business clients and emerging companies across a wide spectrum of industries.
ETA Workshop: Self-Funded Search
The Polsky Center hosted a panel of Booth ETA alumni who successfully launched self-funded searches, covering topics such as the self-funded search process, acquiring the business, and the day to day of running a business.
ETA Workshop: Traditional Search (Part 1)
The Polsky Center hosted Trevor Lwin, MBA ’12 (Partner, Blue Frame Capital Partners) and Nathan Dey, MBA ’16 (Managing Partner, Northspring Partners) for part one of an ETA workshop on traditional search. This interactive workshop covered disseminating the PPM and optimizing your cap table.
ETA Workshop: Traditional Search (Part 2)
The Polsky Center hosted Trevor Lwin, MBA ’12 (Partner, Blue Frame Capital Partners) and Nathan Dey, MBA ’16 (Managing Partner, Northspring Partners) for the second part of a two-part series on traditional search in ETA. This workshop covered the search phase, sourcing your search, and getting to LOI.
Driving Growth: A Speaker Series on Operating in a PE/ETA Context – Fall 2023
This lecture focused on CXO will feature Booth alum Jack Fitzgibbons MBA ’15, Jack is the Chief Executive Officer of Assembly Health, a technology enabled services provider to thousands of nursing homes and physician practices across the US. Jack was recruited to join Assembly Health as COO, and became CEO in 2021. Assembly is backed by Shore Capital, a leading microcap investor. Prior to Assembly, Jack worked at SMS Assist as Chief of Staff in a CXO like role, and started his career in healthcare consulting at Oliver Wyman. Jack received his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and his undergraduate degree at Duke University.
Driving Growth: A Speaker Series on Operating in a PE/ETA Context – Spring 2024
This lecture focused on CXO will feature Booth alum Alex Panosian, MBA ’18. Alex Panosian obtained his undergraduate degree at the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from Booth in 2018. Growing up in Milwaukee, WI, Alex watched his dad pursue ETA before it was being taught in business schools. Currently, Alex serves as the CEO of StartGuides, a company he acquired through a method that you won’t find in a textbook. Alex has a passion for finding great small businesses to buy and run. Alex lives in the western suburbs of Chicago and spends his free time with his wife and three children.